Adhesive display



June 24, 1941. K E PALMER 2,246,984

v ADHESIVE DISPLAY I Filed D60. 30, 1959 g VVENTOR.' BMMMMM ATTORNEY.

Patented June 24, 1941 ADHESIVE DISPLAY Keene E. Palmer, Chicago, lll., assignmto The Leaton Corporation, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of Illinois Application December 30, 1939, Serial No. 311,727

6 Claims.

This invention relates in general to a flexible, adhesive-backed material usually in ticket, string or sheet form with the adhesive surface suitably coated and protected for handling it commercially.

The principal object 'of the invention is to pron vide adhesive units or stickers having a sign, label or other display matter on the face and an adhesive coating commonly referred to as a pressure sensitive adhesive, usually having a rubber base which will not injure a surface rto which it is applied, but may be caused to adhere closely thereto by pressure and may be bodily removed from the surface Without damaging or injuring the surface, when the sticker or tag has served its purpose.

An objection to stickers of this kind is that the adhesive surface must be covered or protected before use or when not in use as an adhesive and the usual practice is to apply or cover the exposed surface of the adhesive with a suitable paper such as glassine, Holland cloth, and the like, which will adhere closely tothe adhesive coating but may be peeled and removed therefrom to prepare the adhesive coating` for use.

In display units, or stickers of this kind it is inconvenient and sometimes difficult to separate the protective layer at the back of the adhesive from the tag itself, although the peelable backing strip is quite easily removed from the adhesive tag once it is started, or when a corner or other portion of the backing strip is separated from the tag.

An important object of the present invention is therefore in the provision of an adhesive display unit of this kind in which the edge or one corner of the backing strip is severed or partially severed from the remainder thereof so that when the unit or sticker is bent or flexed a portion of the backing is thereby deflected, disengaged and may be easily disconnected from the remainder of the backing sheet at the same time disengaging portions of the remainder of the backing sheet from the adhesive so that they may also be more easily engaged for stripping the backing sheet from the remainder of the adhesive,

A further object of the invention is in the pro-` vision of a backing or cover strip for an adhesive display unit, or the like which is continuous or co-extensive with the tag itself so that no projections beyond the surface of the tag or sticker itself are necessary, but at the same time providing a protecting cover for the entire adhesive surface which is easily removed to uncover the adhesive when desired.

Other and further objects ofthe invention will appear hereinafter, the accompanying drawing illustrating a preferred embodiment of the invention, in which Fig. 1 is a perspective view which illustrates the back of a sticker in accordance with this invention, having a backing strip with one comer thereof severed or partially severed from the remainder of the backing but held in place by the adhesive;

Fig. 2 is a detail perspective showing the disengagement of the severed corner and the separation of the edges of the backing sheet when the tag with the adhesive are deflected from the back;

Fig. 3 is a detail view showing the up-turned corners at the opposite edges of the recess left by the removable corner;

Fig. 4 shows a series of connected display units, tickets or tags with the removable protecting corners in adjacent pairs; and

Fig. 5 is a section of an adhesive display unit in accordance with this invention.

Referring now more particularly to the drawing, a card, display unit or label I0 of any suitable flexible material may be provided in different separate sizes or shapes, one of which is illustrated in Fig. l, or it may be in the form of a strip as shown in Fig. 4, with cuts or breaks for partially severing the separate units or labels as desired.

To the back of each unit or label is applied a layer or coating Il of a pressure-sensitive adhesive, preferably of some suitable rubber compound which is adapted to repeated applications and removals but has the capacity to adhere closely to most supporting surfaces even `under adverse weather or other conditions.

To the back of the adhesive coating Il is attached a flexible cover strip or sheet l2 which is substantially co-extensivein all respects with the display unit or label itself `so that the adhesive layer and the cover sheet l2 are both of the same size and extent as the label itself. This cover sheet may be of any suitable material which does not adhere permanently to the adhesive and usually is of glazed cloth or paper, or Cellophane, the flexible glazed Holland cloth being preferably used for this purpose. When the Holland cloth, or other coating, is applied to the back of a display unit or label it does adhere sufficiently close thereto so that it very diillcult to separate it from the ticket and the adhesive thereon and Ato start it for peeling the protecting cover from the back of the label. Even when an attempt is made to remove the cover sheet from the adhesive at a corner of the unit or label, the corner of the label itself is often defaced with the danger that the tag may be severed from the adhesive, which detracts from the appearance of the label when thereafter attached to a supporting surf-ace.

To overcome this objection the cover sheet I2 is preferably provided with a severed corner portion I3, preferably square, rectangular, or circular in shape, having angularly disposed cut lines Il and l5, or an angular corner portion I6 having a rounded cut or partially cut line I1.

In both of these forms the removal of the severed or partially severed corner piece will leave angular extremities or points I8 at the edges of the recess which is formed when the corner piece is removed.

The object of this construction is to provide a severed portion of the cover sheet which may be dislodged and disengaged therefrom by iiexing the unit at the location of the severed portion so that this portion will be flexed upwardly and away from the adhesive, separating the angular corners of the portion and of the recess itself so that they may be readily engaged by the ngers or hands of an operator and by grasping the up-turned or severed corners to more readily engage the cover sheet and the portion thereof so that the entire cover sheet can be engaged and peeled from the adhesive at the back of the display unit.

When the cover sheet is a flexible sheet such as Holland cloth and the like, it is usually1 waxy or has sufllcient resistance to bending so that the corners thereof will readily separate from the adhesive by bending the unit itself and the upstanding or separated corners may be then engaged by L the fingers or finger nails and the remainder of the severed portion or the sheet may be more readily peeled and rem'pved from the adhesive.

For some types of cover sheets it may be sufficient if the smaller portion is only partially severed from the cover sheet, In making a strip or a continuous roll of labels or tags it may be desirable to have the severing lines l1 for adjacent units continuous as shown in Fig. 4, but omitted at the other ends of the two adjacent units, thus having the severed tags arranged in pairs.

While the exact form of the severed portion and its specific location are not material to the present invention, as the severed portion may be located along any edge of the display unit or label, instead of at the corner, it is probably more desirable to have the severed portion located at the corner where the label is more easily flexed and the angular corners of the portion and of the edges of the recess are more easily separated from the adhesive coating.

I claim:

1. An adhesive display unit of flexible material having its back covered with a pressuresensitive adhesive, and a non-adhesive flexible cover sheet therefor co-extensive with said display unit, and peelable therefrom, said cover sheet being cut to form a severed portion thereof defined in part by a plurality of edges of the display units and in part by a line of cut intersecting the edges of the display unit and forming a corner upon the cover sheet inwardly of the edges of the display unit.

2. An adhesive display unit of flexible material havingits back covered with a pressuresensitive adhesive, and a non-adhesive flexible cover sheet therefor co-extensive with said display unit, and peelable therefrom, said cover sheet being cut to form a severed portion thereof at a corner thereof, said severed portion being defined by two adjacent edges of said cover sheet and by a line intersecting the edges of the display unit and forming a corner upon the cover sheet inwardly of the edges of the display unit.

3. An adhesive display unit of flexible material having its back covered with a pressuresensitive adhesive, and a non-adhesive flexible cover sheet therefor co-extensive with said display unit, and peelable therefrom, said cover sheet being cut to form a severed portion thereof substantially rectangular in form and defined by two adjacent edges of said cover sheet and two lines of cut intersecting said edges and meeting each other to form angular corners at said intersections and at said point of meeting.

4. An adhesive display unit of flexible material having its back covered with a pressure-sensitive adhesive, and a non-adhesive flexible cover sheet therefor co-extensive with said display unit, and peelable therefrom, said cover sheet being cut to form a severed portion thereof defined by two adjacent edges of said cover sheet and two lines of eut intersecting said edges, said lines of cut lying substantially normal to each other and forming a substantially right angled corner upon said severed portion at said point of meeting.

5. An adhesive display unit of flexible material having its back covered with a pressuresensitive adhesive, and a non-adhesive flexible cover sheet therefor coextensive with said display unit, and peelable therefrom, said cover sheet being cut to form a severed portion thereof defined by a line intersecting the edges of the display unit and forming a corner on the cover sheet inwardly of the edges of the display unit, whereby opposite points of the corner and cover sheet are freed from the display unit when' it is flexed substantially along the line of cut.

6. An adhesive display unit of flexible material having its back covered with a pressuresensitive adhesive, and a non-adhesive flexible cover sheet therefor coextensive with said display unit, and peelable therefrom, said cover sheet being cut to forma severed portion thereof defined by a line intersecting the edges of the display unit and forming complementary recessed and projecting edges on opposite sides of the line of cut, inwardly of the edges of the display unit.

KEENE E. PALMER. 

